DTI Integrated Business Solutions, Inc. (www.dtiibs.com) has been providing content management, workflow, imaging, and integration services since 1984 when gas was $1.10 per gallon, Ghostbusters was in theaters, and the first Apple Macintosh hit the market. It is amazing to look back on history and reminisce about the past and relive some of the good times.

That is the situation where we find ourselves today with one of our valued partnerships. When DTI began selling and implementing electronic document imaging solutions in the early 1990’s, one of our first partnerships was with a company called OTG. They had a simple, yet dynamic product that was able to manage large amounts of images and electronic content helping companies solve problems of paper overload, access to information, and office productivity. This product was named ApplicationXtender, or AX for short (http://www.dtiibs.com/documents/AX65DataSheet.pdf ).

In 2002, OTG was acquired by Legato, which was then acquired by EMC about one year later. The AX product became overshadowed by other products in the EMC line and despite the strong margins provided by the product, the revenue numbers were small when compared to other EMC products.

Last year as we evaluated our business, we were delighted to see that our most successful implementations and ongoing service engagements were with our EMC AX client base. And why shouldn’t they be? The product is stable, consistent, and requires as little overhead as it used to. New applications are added in a few hours, and additional licenses are easy to acquire. These clients represented a broad market segment from government to manufacturing and AX is deployed in sites with hundreds of users and those with only a few. Our clients did not lose focus on their commitment to a great product. Many continued to expand the use across departments and continue to enjoy the stability of a long standing solution.

Organized under EMC’s Intelligent Information Group (IIG), AX 6.5, sports a new look, new functionality and is still easy to deploy and use. New developments in the integration capabilities and an updated licensing model have enhanced the user experience while protecting a low cost of ownership when compared to other solutions. Blending these developments with Captiva scanning software (http://www.dtiibs.com/documents/intelligent-capture-so.pdf ) also an EMC product in the IIG) provides the advanced capture capabilities unavailable in the early days of AX. Now EMC clients have the benefits of a broad spectrum of content management functionality all from a single manufacturer.

At a recent Partner Conference, we found and one of the most exciting aspects was the general atmosphere and attitude of the partners in attendance. Everyone was very open in sharing successes and specialties they had developed. This is a very active community of small businesses and we see the value in working together. Some partners highlighted new technology such as mobile solutions, others highlighted recent successes in a specific industry, and we were asked to share our strategy for an emerging market opportunity. Working with this group in a collaborative environment brought new ideas to the table and everyone left with action items to help grow our business and bring more value to our clients.

EMC ApplicationXtender continues to provide great performance and reliability. New development efforts at EMC supported by revitalization of the partner community bring back the excitement of working with this product years ago. We are having fun renewing old friendships in this community and reliving the success of the early days of the product. In upcoming articles, we will be sharing a blend of technical information along with commentary on new technologies related to content management. If you have specific questions, let us know and we will do our best to answer. For now, here is a link to our website where you can find more information on content management technologies including a short video produced by EMC on ApplicationXtender. http://www.dtiibs.com/managing_content.aspx Our resource page (http://www.dtiibs.com/resourcelibrary.html ) contains other information that may be helpful in your research.

Now excuse me while I go watch some Home Improvement reruns, play the original Nintendo Game Boy, and listen to my old Genesis CD’s on my Sony Discman…

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